Ratchet: Deadlocked

Share.

The mistreatment of Lombaxes is strictly forbidden...unless it gets ratings. New videos and details!

By Ivan Sulic

Intergalactic media mogul Gleeman Vox and his show, Dreadzone, are not entirely unlike Nickelodeon's Double Dare and its host, Marc Summers, circa 1986. Only instead of warm vats of caressing slime, contestants that appear on Gleeman's ultra popular program are subjected to cannons, spikes, robot zombies, explosive projectiles, and a variety of other extremely hazardous materials. So yeah, he's a mean bastard that laughs at someone else's horrific and usually painful folly.

Accommodations for Dreadzone are provided by Sam's Tombstones and Family Plots. All participants receive an untimely end thanks to our distribution partner, Death! And now for a word from our sponsors...

As best we can tell, Gleeman Vox is also a bit like today's Richard Branson or Rupert Murdock in that he's an insane rich person that likes to torture other people. He also runs a portion of the universe lovingly referred to as the Shadow Sector. See, there're lots of similarities if you look hard enough. Pick a celebrity with personality traits that rival a demon's and we'll show you some side of Gleeman.

Like Lucifer and News Corp and Virgin's ultra millionaires, Gleeman is finding it increasingly difficult to entertain the galaxy's savvy television audience with ever more exciting programming. Since volunteers for his sadistic Dreadzone primetime program -- that Double Death plus Double Dare game show that's more like Running Man than Family Feud -- are in such short supply due to the terminal nature of a seasonal contract, Vox has had to kidnap heroes of some renown from around the universe to fill his lists. It isn't too long until Ratchet and Clank are snatched up and deposited into one of Dreadzone station's many containment suites since they plain rock like that.

In a nutshell, our boy Ratchet is stuffed into an energized suit of armor and commanded to blast nasty robotic menaces for the good of Dreadzone's noble sponsors. And Clank? Well, this time Ratchet's suave and stainless sidekick will have to take a strictly supportive role to that space sponsored action. While Clank won't be playable, his personality will still shine light on missions in an advisory capacity and will also liven up the gray areas between levels via the game's many computer generated cutscenes.

The Camera Adds Ten Pounds

That's the setup. Insomniac Chief Creative Officer, Brian Hastings, and Sony Associate Produce, Greg Phillips, walked us through a bit of Gleeman's fabulous Dreadzone to give us a better grasp of the game. Cue enhanced cybernetic morningstar to the face!

"That'll get changed." Hastings' warning pretty much sums up Insomniac's ongoing commitment to perfecting its product in every way that it can.

"Yep, those voices are going to get toned down. They're too dense." Greg agreed as two of Ratchet's new automated comrades carried on a conversation of some artificial import.

In this way the two AI partners are designed to help Deadlocked develop a better sense of character, as well as to give Ratchet some friends during his journey and to also provide comedic relief in-game. Greg and Brian both agree that right now they talk a bunch, but at least they're durable. There won't be any mothering, anyway. So don't think bots hint at some kind of game-long protection mission.

True, these boys can perform a few simple actions via a small set of context sensitive commands attached to the digital pad, but while command is encouraged, most of the time they'll just merrily run around shooting at things and absorbing damage. And when upgraded via the game's central hub with new fantastical abilities, the two bots will become even more effective. But if one should perish horribly, and die they will, Ratchet will always be able to immediately whip out the revival skill.

The bots are tools and partners, not children. And so instant fail scenarios that necessitate one PlayStation 2 Dual Shock controller be rapidly propelled into one living room wall at mach six have been omitted from the game.

"Oh, no, no, no." Say Brian and Greg.

Even if the new buddies won't ruin Ratchet's life, they won't really save it either. Neither bot will ever take a lead role. It's Ratchet's job to jump and shoot and wield his melee weapons with the aggressive efficiency of a perturbed Lombax whose tail has been stuffed into the back-end of an ill-designed suit of electro-armor. Taking that away from him would be a sin. All of this various leaping and fighting is tracked by the game, too, so what good would it be to have robots performing all the great deeds?

"We wanted the player to be rewarded for everything." Brian was pretty adamant about that. The Dreadzone tournament records Ratchet's performance and rewards him accordingly. Brian says it was very important for the team to keep players scoring points and earning upgrades -- to keep them finding and discovering something more powerful and exciting as the levels went on. And so the boys at Insomniac have created five suits of earnable power armor, Omega modifications, Alpha modifications, and 10 purchasable weapons.